iPhone to print matching: is it possible??

I never thought I'd see the day when I could take a photo on my phone, view & enhance it on the phone, uploaded it to an online photo host, share links with my friends, order prints, and receive color accurate images in the mail. Yet today I'm seeing that day. I've been having fun using my iPhone 4 to capture little snippets of life and then processing them with my new favorite iPhone app, PictureShow, which has basic adjustments, great effects, cool borders, and even nice texture overlays. It really comes closest to what I love to do to my images with Photoshop on my computer. I then upload the images to a photo sharing site with one of my online album iPhone companion apps.

I've tried a lot of the iPhone photo sharing apps, and I like several of them. I love SmugMug and they have several apps that connect to my SmugMug account. I also like iPicasso for connecting to my Picassa albums. But the Phanfare app is really different because it not only lets me upload images to my Phanfare site, but keeps them organized and cached on the iPhone as well (meaning you don't have to be online to see the images on the iPhone). You can take photos with the app or copy them from your iPhone albums. You can also post images directly to your Facebook albums via the app. And, most importantly, I can easily order accurate prints from Phanfare OR print directly from the app to my HP inkjet! There are a couple features I'd like to see improved, like the ability to add multiple photos at one time from the iPhone photo library (currently you have to add one at a time). And, I'd like to see the print order defaults that I setup on the website reflected when I order from the phone. Other than that, it's pretty amazing all the features you get in a free app.

So, I received my first print order in the mail this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that the prints matched my iPhone 4 screen almost exactly. Wow, that is just weird. If you've been around digital imaging and printing for a while, then you know this is no small wonder. It would seem the iPhone 4 screen is incredibly color accurate and Phanfare's printing is well color managed. I really never expected it to be this easy. I wasn't expecting anything really close in color, I just wanted to see the detail and quality of the iPhone images - which was also very impressive in the 4x6 sized prints. Now, my entire thought process behind iPhone imaging has changed. I will be taking my photos and editing more seriously knowing that they can actually be made in to quality prints. Next up, larger image print tests and an Asukabook photo book all from iPhone images.

Here's a snapshot of the images I loaded in to my Phanfare album. You can see the full-sized images by clicking the collage below to go to my Phanfare site.